Mark, David: Rudd history wars

Quotes from Prime Ministers Rudd and Howard and Robert Manne. Rudd: [It was time] ‘to go beyond the so-called “black arm [band]” view that refused to confront some hard truths about our past, as if our forebears were all men and women of absolute nobility, without spot or blemish,’ he said. ‘But time, too, to go beyond the view that we should only celebrate the reformers, the renegades and revolutionaries, thus neglecting or even deriding the great stories of our explorers, of our pioneers and of our entrepreneurs. Any truthful reflection of our nation’s past is that these are all part of the rich fabric of our remarkable story called Australia.’ [full text of Rudd speech]